When’s the last time you were trying to get something done but the company or service made it so incredibly annoying that you gave up?
The other day I was trying to close out a credit card not serving me anymore. 10 minutes searching for the right phone number. 20+ minutes on hold. Transferred to a retention agent whose job was to talk me out of my own request. Long story short I caved and spent all this time on the phone only to keep the card 🙃
Behavioral economists call this sludge. It’s intentional friction designed to stop you from doing what’s best for you. You see it everywhere in personal finance:
– The manual confusing nightmare of 401k rollovers
– Requiring a phone call to close an account or subscription
– Insurance claims that require jumping through hoops to exhaust you
Any time you do personal finance admin stuff, you are fighting through sludge. And the harder something is to get done, the less likely you are gonna do it.
A lot of advisors give me a puzzling look when I tell them I meet with families once a month instead of the traditional annual/quarterly review meeting. But this is why.
We help people push through the sludge and get things done they never would on their own. In today’s world, an advisor needs to be just as much an accountability partner as a strategist